The physical health or wellbeing of your employees is critical to business success. There are several ways in which you can as a manager influence your employee’s health and wellbeing and help yourself and the Business going forward.
Communication
Use any means to encourage staff to voice opinions whether in a suggestion box, team meetings or one to one meetings. The latter may be an impromptu occasion where a member of staff has entered your office to give you some information or ask a question. It is important to make them feel valued and you can do this by stopping what you are doing to give them your full attention, or arranging a mutually convenient time when you can discuss their concerns. Waving them away or continuing what you are doing whilst they speak will not convey a sense of approachability or interest. Being able to discuss issues in complete confidence when problems arise may mean the difference between your employee remaining in work with adjustments if necessary or periods of sick absence with the obvious negative impact on the Business. Feeling valued and listened to will help employees maintain a sense of wellbeing within the workplace and increase confidence and respect in you as their manager.
Simple courtesies such as ‘Good morning’ ‘How are you’ or whatever you are comfortable saying will help employees feel that you are approachable.
Being able to listen as well as give orders will also build good relationships, being seen to be fair can often be difficult as each circumstance has to be dealt with on its own merits. It is impossible to please everyone all the time and every office will have a ‘difficult’ staff member or members.
Health & Safety
Ensuring the workplace is free from hazards – use meetings to let employees know that everyone is responsible for their work environment and that leaving an untidy work area can result in injury and even loss of life. Most companies now have Health & Safety officers who help to maintain standards and investigate issues reported to them. The work environment plays a major part in employees’ health and wellbeing; a poor unkempt environment will impact adversely on employees’ health leading to dissatisfaction, stress, accidents and ultimately sick absence.
Other initiatives
Health and Wellbeing programmes are often an ongoing initiative in some large organisations where checks on general health and wellbeing are done annually by the Occupational Health Service. In smaller organisations this may not be as frequent but it is always best to check with your HR to ascertain what may be available to staff and any future planned events.
In most organisations the Unions are proactive in the support of wellbeing initiatives for the workforce. Both Management and Unions are agreed that good general physical and mental health within their workforce makes sound business sense. Offering support to those employees returning from long term sick leave may result in an earlier return to work, if adjustments can be made using a rehabilitation programme, either agreed with the employee or on the recommendation of the Occupational Health.
